We have traced our family genealogy since
1986 and have developed an extensive data base for each branch of our family.

On Peter's side of the family, our search
takes us to the Island of Sicily. The search
splits, basically into two Communes, Sant' Elia and Montemaggiore Belsito..

Sant' Elia

The search for my Paternal Ancestors, the
Bellanti's, takes us to Sant' Elia and the adjoining towns of Porticello,
Santa Flavia, Solanto and Bagheria. We have tracked all the names that
have married into our family and within a short time we realized we were
recording most of the surnames that originated from these towns. Other names include Tarantino, Busalacchi, SanFilippo, Alioto, Galioto, Machi,
Arcoleo, Cefalu, Colla, Sparacino, Balistreri, Speciale and more. This
search took us back to the late 1600s and early 1700s.

Montemaggiore Belsito

The search for my Maternal Ancestors, the
Buscaglia's, takes us to Montemaggiore Belsito. Again we tracked all the
names that married into our family. These other names include Pellegrino,
Sciarrino, Pasquale, Giallombardo, Muscarella, Genco, Traficante, Incao and
many more. This search took us back to the year 1703 AD.

Joan is of French Canadian Ancestry.
The search for the name LaJoie takes us to French Canada, several small towns in
Quebec. At this juncture we found that the
name was originally Gerini and then transcended to deGerini, deGerin, Gerin and
finally to LaJoie. Tracing the Noble name of Gerin, took us to France and
finally to the City State of Firenza (Florence, Italy) in the year 1180 AD.
There are several other lineage's within the LaJoie family Tree which includes
the surname of Enos.

So now, lets start our journey, is it Sicily or is it France through Quebec, Canada?

After you have conducted your tour and are
interested in ordering Personalized Genealogy Reports Click on

Often times we enter discussions regarding
genealogy or relatives and we hear such terms as 1st cousin, 2nd cousin, 3rd
cousin and beyond. Further complicating the descriptive relationship we hear
"once removed", "twice removed" and so on. We hear these
descriptions often and, perhaps, some of us use them not knowing fully what
they really mean. Another site that will be prove to be helpful is entitled
"COUSIN AND OTHER RELATIONSHIPS".
To go there